Sometimes draft weekend comes with information overload. You need to sit down and collect yourself because you’ve absorbed so much information that you’re bursting at the seams. Emotional, knee jerk reaction can sometimes be replaced with measured and pragmatic thought, though some folks will perpetually, understandably, be upset with Howie Roseman.

By now, everybody has done their draft grades and recap podcasts. The zone remains flooded with post-draft content, like the Perkiomen Creek after three straight days of rain.

So for this exercise, let’s hit some some points or random factoids that have flown somewhat under the radar, or haven’t been discussed at all.

 

Round 1, pick #10 – DeVonta Smith, WR, Alabama

If you think about the Smith pick, the Eagles really dicked over the Giants twice.

First, they tanked the regular season finale, which kept New York out of the playoffs and improved their draft positioning, going up from nine to six. Then, Howie traded back to 12 and got an extra first rounder in the process. Thursday, he went back up, via a trade with the hated Cowboys, to jump the division rival Giants and take a guy they wanted.

The Birds ended up with the Heisman Trophy winner, an extra first rounder, and dicked New York over twice in the process. Giants fans have to absolutely despise the Eagles right now, if they did not already.

 

Round 2, pick #37 – Landon Dickerson, C/G, Alabama

Everybody points to the fact that Dickerson had multiple season-ending injuries in college, but here’s the thing:

He still started 37 games. And he started 24 games over the last two seasons with Alabama. The first ACL and the ankle injury took place at Florida State, pre-transfer. And then the second ACL didn’t happen until the very end of this season.

So there’s a precedent here for recovery. He already came back once from an ACL, and turned that into almost two full seasons worth of football for the nation’s best program. And the other thing is that he doesn’t need to play at all this year. If we’re being honest with ourselves, this 2022 season is a fact-finding mission. We’re just trying to figure out what the Birds have and there’s no pressure to put Dickerson on the field before he’s healthy.

 

Round 3, pick #73 – Milton Williams, DL, Louisiana Tech

The now-famous Tom Donahoe video was filmed after this selection.

Here it is again:

Roseman explained it this way, in a totally honest and fair response:

“…when we were at pick 70 there were a couple guys we liked on the board, and moved back a little bit to see how it would go. Couple guys we liked went as well.

You know, these guys spend all year scouting these guys and you get favorites, you get guys that you feel really strongly about. We all do. You know, that’s the fun part about being in the draft room is the emotions of it.”

This suggests that Donahoe liked one or both of UCF corner Aaron Robinson and NC State defensive tackle Alim McNeill. Robinson went to the Giants and McNeill to Detroit. The Birds picked up an extra 6th for moving down, which turned into Tarron Jackson.

 

Round 4, pick #123 – Zech McPhearson, CB, Texas Tech

McPhearson is a good player and I hope he does well for the Eagles, but man, I just don’t trust defensive players coming out of the Big 12, especially corners. I know he had some time at PSU pre-transfer, but Texas Tech is the furthest thing from a defensive juggernaut.

Tech’s defensive coordinator is a guy named Keith Patterson, who had a stop at WVU earlier in his career, when we were playing this bullshit 3-3-5 stack defense. Some of the mid-tier Big 12 schools run some version of that, with five DBs on the field and then some kind of hybrid safety or linebacker who moves around the formation, which can make it look like  4-2-5 when necessary. There’s a lot of three-man rush and drop-eight into soft zone coverage, and I just don’t know how a guy like McPhearson translates from that to the NFL. Same thing with Rasul Douglas.

Maybe I’m permanently scarred from watching bad Big 12 football, but I’d never draft a corner out of this conference. Safety, sure, but never a corner.

(Brian Powers-USA TODAY Sports)

 

Round 5, pick #150 – Kenneth Gainwell, RB, Memphis

The more you watch the videos and read up on Gainwell, the more he seems like the Eagles’ Nyheim Hines.

Nick Sirianni had Hines for a few seasons in Indy, and he was a fantastic third down back who could catch the ball out of the backfield. Gainwell had 50+ catches for 600 yards and three touchdowns during that 2019 season in Memphis.

Hines, last season, went out and caught 63 passes for 483 yards and four touchdowns. He was their change of pace/pass catcher behind Jonathan Taylor, and was productive in that role. If they can turn Gainwell into a Hines type of player, then it’s a success.

 

Round 6, pick #189 – Marlon Tuipuloto, DL, Southern Cal

Interestingly enough, when Howie Roseman and Andy Weidl were asked about the day three picks, Weidl went down the list and Tuipuloto was mentioned last. I don’t know if that means anything at all. Perhaps it could mean absolutely nothing, but he did go in order and name every single guy except for Tuipuloto, who he circled back to.

The quote:

Q.Want to talk a little bit about the day three picks. Specifically I guess for Howie and Andy, you look at [Eagles sixth-round draft pick] JaCoby [Stevens] and [Eagles seventh-round draft pick] Patrick [Johnson], bit of tweeners. JaCoby played safety, you listed him as a linebacker. And Patrick was kind of an edge rusher. For Nick, is that kind of hybrid what [Eagles defensive coordinator] Jonathan Gannon wants on defense? (John McMullen)

ANDY WEIDL: I’ll start with the picks today in regard to that, we’re excited about these guys. Six picks. And three of these guys were team captains. Four of the six we were able to see at the Senior Bowl in person and spend time with them and talk to them down there.

With regard to what Howie was talking about earlier with [Eagles fourth-round draft pick] Zech McPhearson, the board fell — the way that fell to us was outstanding, and exciting how it came to be. We like him, his versatility, ability to play outside, his ability to play inside, his ball skills, football intelligence. He’s a team captain. He’s a guy we got on [Eagles southwest area scout] Shawn Heinlen, does an excellent job mining the information on Zech and really brought him to the surface with us.

As we went through the process, he was a guy that we liked. And we were just excited to add him to our football team. [Eagles fifth-round draft pick] Kenneth Gainwell, running back from Memphis. Explosive. He was an opt out guy this year, but in 2019 he rushed for over 1,400 yards, over 600 yards receiving.

Contact balance, his hands, he’s a guy we really liked. And we’re fired up about. [Eagles sixth-round draft pick] Tarron Jackson, another guy we got to see at the Senior Bowl, spent time with him, Coastal Carolina.

Team captain. A lot of negative plays. Got to interview him down in Mobile, watch him practice for the week. Really comfortable with the person. Got to bring him back here and hand him off to Howie and coach and the staff and they took it from there in terms of spending their time with him.

[Eagles sixth-round draft pick] JaCoby Stevens, LSU guy. Played safety and linebacker. We saw him in Mobile. Played linebacker. Another guy that we were fortunate enough to spend time with in Mobile at the Senior Bowl, took advantage of the opportunity. He’s a very productive blitzer, he’s a very productive tackler. He’s tough, he’s physical. And he’s a guy we’re excited to add. And finally [Eagles seventh-round draft pick] Patrick Johnson, linebacker from Tulane, two-time team captain. Made a lot of negative plays in his career there. Strong at the point of attack.

Edge rush ability. We think he’s going to be a good fit in Coach [Jonathan] Gannon’s scheme. We were really excited to end the day with that pick. [Eagles sixth-round draft pick] Marlon [Tuipulotu], another guy — defensive tackle from USC. He was at the Senior Bowl. Had a really strong week. Really heavy handed guy. Can play the run. Get off blocks. Got to spend time with him down there. He made a really favorable impression with us in a young defensive tackle that we’re excited to add to our group.

Maybe there’s something to it. Maybe not. Maybe it was Howie’s pick or someone else’s guy.

 

Round 6, pick #191 – Tarron Jackson, DE, Coastal Carolina

The thing about Coastal is that they actually did play a half decent schedule. They beat Zach Wilson and BYU, and in that game Wilson only went 19-30 with a TD and a pick. Jackson had a couple of tackles and a QB hurry as they held BYU to 17 points.

Coastal also beat Kansas in Kansas. The Jayhawks stink, but beating a Power Five team on the road is always quality. They won at Louisiana (ranked 21 at the time) and Troy and went to OT with Liberty, so don’t worry about Jackson coming from a “small school.” They had some pretty good wins.

Round 6, pick #224 – JaCoby Stevens, LB/S, Louisiana State

He covered DeVonta Smith in college, and said this about him:

“I’m glad he’s on my team. I’m glad that I have to try to go against him in practice and that’s not so much as public as the game, because he’s somebody, like I said in Zooms when they asked me who is the hardest person I’ve covered in 2020 or defend in 2020, and that was DeVonta Smith hands down.

Just because he can run every route. He makes every route look the same. We hear often he’s a quarterback at receiver. When he’s running the crossing routes at Alabama, he knows the holes and the gaps in the zone, and believe it or not, a lot of receivers don’t know that.

So he knows when to sit down and when to idle his speed back to appear open for his quarterback. So I’m happy that DeVonta Smith is on my team. That’s one less guy that I have to worry about covering in the game in a sense in this draft class.”

 

Round 7, pick #234 – Patrick Johnson, DE, Tulane

At NFL.com, guess who is comp was?

Derek Barnett.

Wrote Lance Zierlein:

Projects as a rugged stand-up rush linebacker who plays the game with his mad face on. Johnson possesses the compact frame, play strength and hand usage to set strong edges and hold his own when the running game rolls downhill at him. He lacks desired length and explosiveness as a rusher, but varies his angles and targets the blocker’s edge to help make up for those deficiencies. While he definitely smells blood once he’s in the pocket, he’s more likely a hard-hat rusher than a highly productive sack master on the next level. He should come into the league as a solid backup at 3-4 outside linebacker with the potential to become a rotational defender or eventual starter down the line.

Go Birds.

(Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)